Start
up a Veggie Dining Club · Veg for Life Pledge
Veg Outreach Tabling & Displays
· Sponsor a Veg Ad
Join a Group · Raise
Awareness About the Atkins Diet
Pass a Healthy School Lunch Resolution in Your
Community!
USDA's Food Guide Pyramid revisions! ·
Sponsor a Veg Info Stand · Write
a Letter the the Editor · 2007 Veg Speaking
Tour
Start up a Veggie Dining Club. Even if your friends and family are not vegetarian, you can convince them to join you in a monthly outing to a local restaurant so long as they promise to explore the world of vegetarian cuisine. When you sit down for your meal, everyone has to order vegetarian or vegan fare.
If there are vegetarian or vegetarian-friendly restaurants in your area, they will appreciate the support. Moreover, contact local restaurants that don't typically offer vegetarian cuisine; explain that a group of veggie friends are coming for a meal, and request vegetarian and vegan options. The benefits of this social and educational event are numerous: Your group will have a good time while learning about the benefits of a cruelty-free diet, and restaurants will have an incentive to prepare veggie meals, prompting them to add vegetarian selections to their menu.
Veg for Life Pledge.
Ask
your local restaurants to sign the Veg for Life Pledge! The Veg for Life Pledge is a program
designed to encourage restaurants to commit to carrying at least one vegetarian
(or vegan) entrée at all times. This also offers restaurants the
opportunity to be listed on the Veg for Life website and in regional guides
as a place where customers seeking a meat-free meal can be assured vegetarian
fare. From corner cafés to corporate chains, let establishments
know that vegetarian entrées are in demand, and that offering veg
meals is good for health and business! Simply bring a Veg for Life Pledge sheet
to every restaurant you visit. As a patron you are in the best position
to encourage the restaurant owners and chefs to offer vegetarian and vegan
options. Order your Veg
Activist Kit today!
Click here for a list of establishments that have signed the Veg for Life Pledge.
Please click
here to download a copy of the Veg for Life Pledge.
Please click here to dowload
a sample Veg for Life Pledge cover letter.
Please click here to download
a copy of the "Market for Vegetarian Foods" fact sheet.
(Adobe Acrobat
Reader Required)
Click here
for a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Culinary
Schools Sign the Veg for Life Pledge!
Culinary Schools across North America have joined the growing movement
to promote healthy, humane eating. For a list of schools that have pledged
to teach at least one vegetarian entrée each semester, please click
here.
Veg
Restaurant Cards. Let restaurant owners and managers know that
you would like to see more vegetarian and vegan items on the menu with
our Veg Restaurant Cards. Just leave one of these cards behind every time
you go out to eat. It's a simple way to make your voice heard. Order
your cards today!
Veg Outreach Tabling & Displays Every year, thousands of people go vegetarian — because someone told them about the animal cruelty, environmental destruction and health hazards associated with consuming animal products. More than any other social issue, there is something that everyone can do to make a difference — with every bite they take! Vegetarian outreach is one of the most powerful tools we have, and it's as easy as 1-2-3!
1.
Visit or call your local health food store, gym or other business and
ask the manager if you can set up an outreach table weekly or monthly
to educate people about the benefits of a vegetarian diet. Parks, farmers
markets, festivals and other outdoor events are also ideal locations to
do tabling.
2.
Visit or call your local library and ask the head librarian if you can
do a library display on vegetarianism.
3. Once you have permission to do an outreach table or library
display, contact Farm Sanctuary for posters, literature, books, videos
and other materials you'll need for your veg outreach efforts. E-mail
our Activist Coordinator at: activist@farmsanctuary.org
or call 607-583-2225 ext. 229 or order
a Veg Tabling Kit and other materials online.
4. Order a pre-made Veg
for Life display from Farm Sanctuary.
Sponsor a veg ad. Public awareness is the key to alleviating farm animal suffering. What better way to get the word out in your community than through an ad in your local paper? By sponsoring an ad, you can teach people about modern-day farm animal production, and encourage them to go vegetarian. Call your local newspaper’s advertising department for information on ad rates and sizes. Once you've chosen the ad that fits your budget, Farm Sanctuary can provide camera-ready ads directly to the newspapers. Advertising space needs to be paid in full and reserved before ads can be sent — please email: activist@farmsanctuary.org or call 607-583-2225 ext. 229 if you need additional information or would like to sponsor a veg ad in your community. Please click here for sample veg ads.
Join a group. Chances are, there's a group of vegetarians that meet in your area, or in the nearest city, in support of animal welfare causes or for monthly potluck suppers. If you can't locate a group dedicated specifically to vegetarianism, seek out local environmental groups; often, vegans and vegetarians are involved in environmental causes. Individuals dedicated to cruelty-free living may also belong to local hiking groups, including the Sierra Club. Check your local newspaper, look online or click here to locate vegetarian and environmental groups in your area.
Raise
Awareness About the Atkins Diet.
The Associated Press reported on February 10, 2004 that “Dr. Robert
Atkins, whose popular diet stresses protein-rich meat and cheese over
carbohydrates, weighed 258 pounds at his death and had a history of heart
disease…” Share the full story
from CBS News.com with friends, family and colleagues.
Distribute
the “What’s Wrong With the Atkins Diet?” fact
sheet by George Eisman, RD, an article
“Atkins: Paying a High Price for Low-Carb” by Brenda Davis,
RD. and other resources to educate others about high-protein diets.
Send a letter to the editor to your local paper to share these findings and healthier and more humane options with readers.
Additional
resources and information on the Atkins diet.
Pass a Healthy School Lunch Resolution in Your Community! Children should be able to enjoy healthy, cruelty-free cuisine in the lunchroom. Contact your local legislators and voice your concern about the substandard, meat and dairy-based lunches served in public schools. Tell them your child is a vegetarian and that he or she has the right to choose between a vegetarian or vegan food selection in the lunchroom. Reach out to local politicians, start a letter writing campaign, and write Letters to the Editor; call attention to the rising epidemic of obesity and Type 2 diabetes among U.S. children and teens, and note that soda and junk food consumption is at an all-time high. All it takes is one understanding legislator to sponsor your resolution.
An endorsement from your state legislature is a major step forward, and may lead to actual legislation in the near future. A resolution urging school districts to offer vegetarian cuisine passed in California, and a resolution in Hawaii promotes a two-week alternate vegetarian menu for public schools, and ongoing ‘5 a day’ activities in the classroom promote adequate intakes of fruits and vegetables in chronic disease prevention.
Click here to read the text of California’s Healthy School Lunch Resolution, click here to review a sample letter to your Assembly-person requesting that he or she endorse a Healthy School Lunch Resolution, and click here to see a sample Letter to the Editor.
If you would like to get involved in pursuing a Healthy School Lunch Resolution in your own school district, please contact Veg for Life at veg@farmsanctuary.org.
Click here to read about the Healthy School Lunch Resolution recently adopted by the Los Angeles school district, the second largest school district in the United States.
Talk to your community about the USDA's Food Guide Pyramid revisions! In September 2003, the USDA announced it plans to overhaul its eleven-year old Food Guide Pyramid. The Food Pyramid has become a familiar icon over the past decade, replacing the USDA's previous campaign of the Four Basic Food Groups.
The current Food Guide Pyramid fails to reflect the advances in nutrition and dietetics of recent years and the growing interest in moving away from the traditional American animal-centered diet.
Some suggestions for the USDA might be: 1) Change the titles of the "Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dried Beans, Eggs, and Nuts Group" and the "Milk, Yogurt, and Cheese Group" to the "Protein-Rich Group" and the "Calcium-Rich Group;" 2) Eliminate the "Fats, Oils, and Sweets" designation; and 3) Replace pyramid model with a nonhierarchical graphic so as to move away from the notion that any one group is more integral to sound nutrition than any other.
Though the official public comment period about these revisions has ended, there is still plenty you can do to help educate your community about the need for these revisions and the ideal modifications to make. Talk to your friends and family about the importance of teaching good nutrition. Read Farm Sanctuary's letter to the USDA on recommended revisions. Write your own letter to the editor advocating a more "veggie friendly" presentation of nutritional allowances.
Click
here for the USDA's homepage.
Click here for
an image of the Food Guide Pyramid.
Click here for
information on the USDA's revisions.
Click
here for a record of the public commentary.
